“H-hi” Jinyoung scrambled to get up, and he almost stumbled backwards as he tried to get on his feet. He wiped his oil-stained hands onto his ripped jeans and held one out, “Hello, I’m Park Jinyoung, the new handyman.”

Iseul cleared as she shook his hand, “Sorry about the yelling. I thought you were someone else.” She averted her gaze, embarrassed that she had made a fool of herself in front of a cute boy.

“You must be Ms. Song Iseul, the young lady of the house. My father told me many things about you like how you keep him company whenever he worked.” Jinyoung mentally cursed at himself to keep his mouth shut and to stop rambling in front of the daughter of his employer.

However, Iseul did not mind because she giggled and kept the conversation going, “Actually, it was the other way around. He would keep me company whenever I felt alone.” She looked at Jinyoung’s face, and she suddenly remembered something. “You’re Mr. Park’s son, aren’t you?”

He smiled as he rubbed the back of his neck, “Yes, ma’am.”

“Is your father doing well? I heard that he had injured himself. I was really worried when he didn’t show up for the past few days.” Jinyoung sighed before he chuckled, “He’s just getting older. He hurt himself lifting up some heavy pots onto a high shelf.”

Iseul grew relieved. She skimmed her eyes over his face, and she could feel her heart pounding strongly against her ribcage. “By the way, you can just call me Iseul.”

Jinyoung looked at her in confusion. “You called me ma’am a few seconds ago. You can call me Iseul.” He cleared his throat nervously, “Yes, Ms. Iseul.”

She smiled, amused at his politeness. “No, just Iseul. No ‘Ms.’ and no ‘ma’am’, just Iseul.” She continued to look at him for she couldn’t direct her eyes away from the most perfect being she had ever seen.

“May I call you Jinyoung? Or do I have to call you oppa?” Jinyoung almost choked on the air he was breathing on but he kept his calm. “I was born in 1994.” He shyly looked at her, feeling his face and ears getting hotter by the second.

“What a coincidence, so was I. I-”

“Ms. Iseul! You have a phone call from young master Jiho.” Iseul grew disappointed that she was cut off from the conversation with Jinyoung. She apologized for having to leave and turned to go back into the house. Jinyoung, just as disappointed as Iseul walked back to the Mercedes.

“Jinyoung,” He looked back and saw Iseul standing a few feet away, “I’ll see you around.” He stared at her as she walked away with a smile. He stood there, stupefied that she called his name so naturally as if she had been saying his name for years. He let out the breath of air that he had subconsciously been holding in. “Get yourself together. She’s just being a nice employer. She’s just a nice person. She’s just being friendly. She’s…she’s…she’s just being…Darn it, Jinyoung!” He gripped his white t-shirt and blew air into his cheeks.

He made his way back to the car that he was working on, but before he slid back under the vehicle, he took one last look where he last saw her standing. “She’s just being nice.”

---

“You have the best timing, oppa.” Iseul said sarcastically, “You just had to call at this time. Did you do this on purpose? Do you have people spying on me? Do you want me to die as a cat-lady? Do you not want me to live happily ever after?” She spouted into her phone. Frustrated, she fell back onto her bed and groaned, not caring why her brother actually called.

“Was I interrupting a date or something?” Jiho laughed, causing Iseul to grow more exasperated. She sat up, “This isn’t funny! Why are you calling anyways?” She fell back once more and placed an arm over her forehead.

Jiho let out one last chuckle, “I was calling to see if you were doing okay? I know you get bored easily, but I guess you found someone to hang out with. Who is he?”

Iseul blew a raspberry and heaved a heavy sigh. “Oppa, do you believe in love at first sight?”

“Of course I do. I fell in love with Yoojung the moment I laid my eyes on her.” Jiho began to smile to himself over the phone and Iseul could practically hear her brother’s heart beating wildly just thinking about his fiancé.

“Is that her name? Yoojung? Now I know one more thing about her.” She grinned, happy to know about her future sister-in-law.

“Are you in love, Iseul? Is that boy that always comes by our house? What was his name? Dean Kwon?” Iseul rolled her eyes at the assumption. “First of all, Dean is my enemy. Second, I don’t know if it is love. I mean, I just saw him today. But the moment I saw him, I felt like my heart was going to explode. I could feel butterflies in my stomach. I forgot how to breathe and blink. I felt like…like he was supposed to be a part of my life. I felt like a child again. Remember when I was little and I would beg for you to get me all of the stars in the sky and after you got me the stars, you were supposed to get me the moon? I felt that kind of desire, oppa. But he was more beautiful and more mesmerizing than all of the stars and the moon combined.”

The other end of the line was silent. “Hello? Oppa, you better not have hung up on me.”

“Iseul.” She did not like the way he called her name. He sounded serious and worried. “What? Have you diagnosed me with something? Am I crazy? Do I need to go to a mental hospital?”

“Iseul…are you talking about Mr. Park’s son? Is that the boy who makes you feel like the way you do?” Iseul couldn’t tell what her brother was feeling. His tone didn’t seem happy, but he didn’t sound upset either.

She stayed silent for a moment. She got up from her bed and walked over to her window and saw Jinyoung walking towards the greenhouse. Her heart fluttered madly as she just watched him walk. “Yeah.” She said ever so quietly. “I’m in love, aren’t I?”

This time, Jiho grew silent. He couldn’t believe that his little sister had finally fallen in love, “If you know, why ask?”

Iseul closed her eyes and pressed her forehead against the warm glass. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to be in love, but she just didn’t know what to do with her feelings. It was her first time to be in love. She had male friends and she had hung out with them often, but she had never had to deal with feeling anything more than just seeing them all as brothers.

“What do I do? Do I confess? Do I ask him out? Get him a bouquet of red roses?” Jiho laughed, thinking about how innocent and cute his sister was. “Why don’t you start off slow? Get to know him first. Let him get to know you. Then after you’ve both grown comfortable enough with each other, tell him how you feel.” Iseul groaned, “But that’s going to take forever. What if he doesn’t even like me?”

Jiho chuckled more, “Why wouldn’t he like you? And, Iseul, you have to be patient with love. I had to wait with Yoojung and looked what happened.”

Iseul looked out at the greenhouse and a small smile began to grow on her face, “I guess you’re right.”

“I’m always right.” Iseul rolled her eyes, “Whatever. Go back to saving lives.”

---

Jinyoung wiped the sweat that was forming on his forehead. He stood up and looked at his hard work. “I guess the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. But then again, mom was better at this kind of stuff than dad.” He chuckled as he remembered how his mother used to scold his father for messing up the flowers she had planted.

He grabbed the hose on the ground and began to gently water the thirsty flowers. He admired how they were planted so well and how they smelled so wonderful. “Drink up little guys.”

Being too busy with watering the plants and being so distracted with how each flower had bloomed, he didn’t hear Iseul walk up to the greenhouse’s entrance. He didn’t see her watch him in admiration as he simply sprayed the plants with a mist of water.

“Your father did a wonderful job.” Jinyoung jumped in surprise and turned towards the voice, forgetting to let go of the hose. He stared at Iseul in shock as he continued to water her instead of the flowers. When he realized what he was doing, he quickly dropped the hose and ran over to her, apologizing repeatedly.

Iseul laughed the situation off, “Were you trying to imply that I’m a beautiful flower?” She shook her wet hair and laughed. Jinyoung grew pink in the face, “I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t worry about it. It’s not like you were trying to get revenge because I scared you earlier…right?” Jinyoung fervently shook his head.

He looked down at the towel in his hand that was now soaked and useless. He looked around, looking for something to dry her off with.

“Sorry for scaring you aga-” Iseul stopped talking as she watched Jinyoung take off his plaid button-up shirt. She admired his toned arms that stuck out of the short sleeves of his white t-shirt.

He began to dry her off with his shirt, “I’m really sorry, Ms. Is-, I mean, Iseul.” She hummed an “it’s okay” as she continued to admire his muscles, wondering if his body were just as toned as his arms. But when he caught herself thinking of such a thing, she cleared .

She placed her hands over his, stopping him from drying her further. Jinyoung looked up and met her gaze. He swallowed the imaginary lump in his throat. His heart began to flutter as she stared into his eyes. He searched her eyes, attempting to figure out what she was thinking.

His arms dropped back down to his sides. Iseul stepped closer, closing the gap between them. Jinyoung stood in place, unable to grasp the situation. It was as though she had put him in a trance.

Just as she was about to get on her toes to meet his lips with hers, she heard her brother calling for her. Quickly, she grabbed the shirt that was in Jinyoung’s hands and stepped away from the young man as began to dry herself.

“What are you doing in here? Oh! You must be Mr. Park’s son. It’s nice to meet you.” Jiho shook Jinyoung’s hand eagerly.

“It’s nice meeting you, sir. My father has told me great things about you.” Jinyoung smiled warmly. Jiho smiled back at him before turning his attention towards his sister.

“Why are you wet?” Iseul cleared , “I accidentally sprayed myself with the hose. I was trying to figure out how it worked. Jinyoung was showing me and I made a mistake.” Jiho laughed at the lie he believed. “You’re such a clumsy child. How are you ever going live to be an old lady?”

Iseul glanced over at Jinyoung who could not meet her eyes anymore. “What are you doing here anyways? Aren’t you supposed to be at the hospital?”

Jiho slung his arm around Iseul’s shoulders and began to walk her back to the house as he explained why he had come back so early. But all the while, Iseul could not listen to him because all she could think about was what she had almost done. She looked back and saw Jinyoung picking the hose up.

What’s wrong with me?

---

Jinyoung grabbed the hose off of the ground and placed a hand over his heart. He could feel it beating intensely. “Calm down, she was probably just trying to grab your shirt.”

But no matter how hard he tried to convince himself, his heart wouldn’t believe his words. A million thoughts and what-ifs ran through his mind. He began to narrow down the possibilities but when he was about to reach a conclusion, his phone began to ring.

“Hello?” His mind was fully alert once he heard his father’s weak voice on the other end. “Dad? Is everything okay?”

“I was just checking in on you. It’s not too much for you is it?” Jinyoung softened, “It’s nothing. I’m not tired yet. Dad, don’t worry about me, worry about your health.”

Jinyoung stared at the hose in his hand and his heart broke a little. He put it down and walked out of the greenhouse. He listened to his father worry about his one and only son.

“Dad, I’m fine. I can do this. Don’t be sorry. We have to earn money somehow. I’m fine with this job. You just have to worry about getting better okay. I’ll go home as soon as I’m done with everything. Bye, dad.” Jinyoung hung up and stared at his worn down phone. He smiled at it. It was the very first phone that he had bought himself with the money he had left over after helping out his parents.

---

Iseul gently dried her hair with her towel as she walked out of her bathroom. She approached her window and stopped drying herself when she saw Jinyoung standing in the large yard. She wondered who he was talking to over the phone. When he hung up, she watched him smile and her heart grew elated. And her heart fluttered when he looked up at her window.

She quickly turned around and pretended to dry her hair again. After a few seconds, she checked to see if he was still looking. When she found that he was nowhere to be seen, she grew relieved and disappointed all at the same time. She sighed and turned to go back to the bathroom when something blue caught the corner of her eye.

It was his shirt. The one that he had worn for God knows how long. The one that was soaked in his scent. The one that he had looked so good in. The one that he had taken off to dry her. The one that she had taken without a word.

She picked it up and stared at it for the longest time, wondering what she should do with it.